The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP

PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP. As PrEP changes sexual norms and subjectification, for example condom use and its meaning for gay subjectivity, it is highly contested. The article shows that the debate on PrEP can be best described with the concepts ‘sexual-somatic ethics’ and ‘democratic biopolitics’, which I develop based on the biopolitical approach of Nikolas Rose and Paul Rabinow. In contrast, interpretations of PrEP which are following governmentality studies or Italian Theory amount to either farfetched or trivial positions on PrEP, when seen in light of the political debate. Furthermore, the article is a contribution to the scholarship on gay subjectivity, highlighting how homophobia and homonormativity haunts gay sex even in liberal environments, and how PrEP can serve as an entry point for the destigmatization of gay sexuality and transformation of gay subjectivity. ‘Biopolitical democratization’ entails making explicit how medical technology and health care relates to sexual subjectification and ethics, to strengthen the voice of (potential) PrEP users in health politics, and to renegotiate the profit and power of Big Pharma

Staying Cool Across the First Year of Middle School

As students transition into middle school they must successfully negotiate a new, larger peer context to attain or maintain high social standing. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which the maintenance, attainment, and loss of a cool status over the course of the sixth grade is associated with student and classroom levels of physical, verbal, and relational aggression. To address this goal, we studied a sample of 1985 (55% girls) ethnically diverse adolescents from 99 sixth grade classrooms in the United States. Attaining a cool status at any point across the school year was associated with stronger aggressive reputations. Additionally, classroom norms for aggressive behavior moderated the association between changes in aggression over the school year and the stability of coolness such that students who maintained their coolness across the school year showed greater increases in their verbally aggressive reputations from fall to spring when they were in classrooms with higher levels of aggression. The findings illustrate the importance of fitting in with social norms for maintaining a high social status among a new set of peers in middle school

Geo-archaeological mapping using very high resolution and stereoscopic satellite imagery (Russian TK-350) integrated in a GIS: a case study for the Wadi Mujib area near Lehun (Jordan)

A geo-archaeological model based on various environmental factors was developed for the Wadi Mujib area near the site of Lehun (Jordan). A DEM and a lithological map based on respectively a topographical and a geological map were prepared and integrated into a GIS. Since the geomorphology of the area is of primary, importance to archaeological site prediction an inventory of relevant relief information was extracted from a geomorphological map based on very high resolution and stereoscopic Russian TK350 images. These images offer an interesting alternative for conventional stereoscopic aerial photographs on scale 1:50,000 or smaller due to the high quality, the easy image processing, the large covered area, the availability and the sure and quick delivery,. After integration of the scanned geomorphological map the GIS finally comprised eight factor layers. A simple addition of these information layers resulted in a probability map for geo-archaeology showing the spatial variance of the probability, for archaeological evidence in the area. In the frame of the construction of a dam on the Wadi Mujib near the King's Highway the archaeologists can use this mop as a toot for organizing rescue research in a quick and efficient way

Geo-Archeological Mapping Using Very High Resolution and Stereoscopic Satellite Imagery (Russian TK-350) Integrated in a GIS. A Case Study for the Wadi Mujib Area near Lehun (Jordan)

A geo-archeological model based on various environmental factors was developed for the Wadi Mujib area near the site of Lehun (Jordan). A DEM and a lithological map based on respectively a topographical and a geological map were prepared and integrated into a GIS. Since the geomorphology of the area is of primary importance to archeological site prediction an inventory of relevant relief information was extracted from a geomorphological map based on very high resolution and stereoscopie Russian TK-350 images. These images offer an interresting alternative for conventional stereoscopic aerial photographs on scale 1:50,000 or smaller, due to the high quality, the easy image processing, the large covered area, the availability and the sure and quick delivery. After integration of the scanned geomorphological map the GIS finally comprised eight factor layers. A simple addition of these information layers resulted in a probability map for geo-archaeology showing the spatial variance of the probability for archaeological evidence in the area. In the frame of the construction of a dam on the Wadi Mujib near the King's Highway the archaeologists can use this map as a tool for organizing rescue research in a quick and efficient way

Geo-archaeological research in the surroundings of the Wadi Mujib canyon (Jordan) based upon field survey, very high resolution and stereoscopic satellite images and a GIS

A geo-archaeological model based on various environmental factors was developed for the Wadi Mujib area near the site of Lehun (Jordan). A DEM and a lithological map based on respectively a topographical and a geological map were prepared and integrated into a GIS. Since the geomorphology of the area is of primary, importance to archaeological site prediction an inventory of relevant relief information was extracted from a geomorphological map based on very high resolution and stereoscopic Russian TK350 images. These images offer an interesting alternative for conventional stereoscopic aerial photographs on scale 1:50,000 or smaller due to the high quality, the easy image processing, the large covered area, the availability and the sure and quick delivery,. After integration of the scanned geomorphological map the GIS finally comprised eight factor layers. A simple addition of these information layers resulted in a probability map for geo-archaeology showing the spatial variance of the probability, for archaeological evidence in the area. In the frame of the construction of a dam on the Wadi Mujib near the King's Highway the archaeologists can use this mop as a toot for organizing rescue research in a quick and efficient way

Lower Bounds for the Number of Bends in Three-Dimensional Orthogonal Graph Drawings

This paper presents the first non-trivial lower bounds for the total number of bends in 3-D orthogonal graph drawings with vertices represented by points. In particular, we prove lower bounds for the number of bends in 3-D orthogonal drawings of complete simple graphs and multigraphs, which are tight in most cases. These result are used as the basis for the construction of infinite classes of c-connected simple graphs, multigraphs, and pseudographs (2 ≤ c ≤ 6) of maximum degree Δ (3 ≤ Δ ≤ 6), with lower bounds on the total number of bends for all members of the class. We also present lower bounds for the number of bends in general position 3-D orthogonal graph drawings. These results have significant ramifications for the `2-bends problem', which is one of the most important open problems in the field